Methodical implementation of NREGA in Burdwan

Burdwan district has won the National Award for Effective Initiative and Excellence in NREGA Implementation following a concerted effort in identifying focus areas and in a methodical and planned manner executing schemes with respect to them.
The Union Rural Development ministry will give the National Award for Effective Initiative and Excellence in NREGA Implementation to Burdwan district on February 2 in New Delhi, District Magistrate Saumitra Mohan said.
Mohan told PTI that the district NREGA Programme Management Unit in consultation with stakeholders and concerned field-level officials framed customized, need-based plans and schemes for implementation under NREGA and various other non-NREGA schemes in convergence with the flagship scheme.

The district was broadly divided into four zones - coal mine areas, flood-prone areas, drought-prone areas and the agricultural areas.
Various schemes and works were accordingly planned and executed. A very strong system of monitoring and supervision backed by community-level social audit was put in place which added to the overall quality of the schemes when they were finally executed, he said.
The principal success was in turning around 1445 acres of fallow, barren, uncultivable or mono-crop land, susceptible to either reguar droughts or floods in different regions of the district.

This, Mohan said, not only added to the overall paddy production but also to the creation of huge social forestry assets.

The NREGA work in these areas has been one of the reasons for the significant change in the quality of life of the people there.
The most noticeable area which witnessed a critical change was the coal-mine belt of the district.